Lost
by TheGirlByTheWall
Summary: After being feared by everyone he has ever known, Hitoshi Shinso turns away from his string of crimes and enters the UA Academy, where he meets Izuku Midoriya. An annoying nuisance to him at first, Shinso slowly develops a dependence on the boy who inspires him to trust others once more, and he realizes Deku is someone he can't live without. (Romance in later chapters).
1. Chapter 1

A small boy named Hitoshi Shinso walked through a park by himself, the sunlight filtering through gaps in the trees to hit his lavender hair. His mother had let him out of the house to explore by himself as long as he returned by dinner. He eagerly accepted the terms, his head bobbing up and down as he slipped on his shoes and ran out the door to the park. He stopped after running for about ten minutes, and looked at the ground. A clump of ants scurried around their nest. He picked up a twig and poked at the crest of their sand mound.

" _I don't know what's wrong with him…" his pediatrician's words from earlier that week echoed in his ears. "He doesn't have an extra pinkie toe joint, but he is five years old and has not demonstrated any signs of having a quirk." She talked to his mother and father like the boy did not exist. He looked up to see how a sharp crease formed between his father's eyebrows, the corners of his mouth tense and unmoving. His mother had a cold look on her face, but silently reassured him when she placed her hand over her son's. He was too young to understand the weight behind the argument his mother and father had later that night._

" _What the_ fuck _do you think he'll be good for then, Harumi? It doesn't matter how smart he his in his studies. If he doesn't have a quirk, he may as well be fucking deaf, dumb, and blind too." His father continued to take his frustration out on his wife while she bit her tongue, knowing that the boy could hear them through the wall._

 _Shinso stared at his ceiling for a long time that night, not falling asleep until the early hours of the morning. His eyes were red and inflamed the next day. He didn't know why he cried. Was it his fault that he didn't have a quirk? Did he mess up? His body felt heavy the next day. He was tired. There were dark circles beginning to grow under his eyes, but he couldn't do anything about it. He trudged onwards, his feet dragging on the concrete when he walked to school._

He stopped poking at the ants when he felt a blast of heat hit his back. Looking over his shoulder, he saw two other boys his age. One had red eyes and a baggy t-shirt, the other had green hair and freckles. He noticed immediately that green-hair was crying, looking up at red-eyes, who punched his fist, smoke curling around his knuckles. He pushed green-hair to the ground, and he cried out. Shinso stared for a second at the two, not sure of what he was watching. Were they friends? Red-eyes was smiling, but the other was on the ground and unhappy. He snapped to attention when the smaller of the two was kicked. He gasped in pain.

"Kacchan, stop!" Green-hair shouted. Shinso froze when the other boy kicked him again. He couldn't think straight, and was lost in fighting his fight-or-flight instincts. Suddenly, his body moved before his mind was aware, and he flew on the balls of his feet, running as fast as his legs would carry him. He needed to help. He needed to help. He needed to help.

" _You didn't get your quirk yet?"_

" _That's weird."_

" _Isn't it? I got mine over a year ago!" One of his friends boasted, sticking out his chest while putting his hand on his hips._

 _The boy rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous smile flicking onto his face. "I don't know why. I'm gonna see a doctor soon."_

 _His friend stared at him silently for a few seconds. "You don't think your quirkless, do you?" He asked._

" _..." The boy's smile stuck to his face like glue, but his eyes flew around the crowd of classmates surrounding him, gauging each reaction. "N-no! There's no way! Just you wait. I'll get my quirk soon and it will be the best one ever." The words tumbled out of his mouth, and he waited to see how his peers would react._

 _His friend eyed him for a few more seconds before looking away. "Yeah, right!"_

 _The boy sagged back in his seat after the crowd dissipated and class started. His heart thumped heavily against his ribcage, and he shoved down the restless feeling he had. He would get a quirk no matter what. It was going to happen._

"Hey! What are you doing?" Shinso shouted to the other two kids. The one called Kacchan stopped moving entirely for a moment, then his eyes slid over to take in the sight of his challenger.

"What do you want, extra?" Kacchan snarled, moving forward. The other boy started to take a step backwards in response, but he swallowed and planted his feet.

"You're hurting him." He pointed to green-hair. "No one likes it when they get hit. Don't." He averted his gaze for a moment, thinking back to the few rare instances where his father punished him for disobeying his word. He felt ashamed every time he was hit, and could only guess that no one else would want to suffer from that humiliation.

Laughter gurgled out of Kacchan's throat. "You can't tell me what to do. This is between me and this quirkless bum. Isn't that right, Deku?" He kicked Deku with his foot once more. Deku started to stutter, trying to stand up to his oppressor, but no words would come out. Kacchan kicked him a few more times before he was knocked off balance, for Shinso had launched himself onto the boy, latching onto his shirt and forcing him to the ground. The two grappled for a short while before Kacchan came out on top, pushing Shinso's wrists into the gravel. It burrowed into his skin, and he felt blood well up at the point of contact. "Stop…" He sputtered.

Kacchan used his foot to hold down the other boy's arm while his hand tried to pry open Shinso's mouth. He gritted his teeth. "You're just like him." He mumbled under his breath, his scarlet eyes blazing with hatred. His breathing picked up. "You think you're so good just because you can try and stop a fight? Even though you don't have any powers? You think you're better than me? I'm the best, and I always will be. I'm not going to let pebbles like you get in the way of me being top hero!" He tried to wrench open Shinso's jaw again, this time opening it a few inches. He coughed, and gathered up phlegm from the back of his throat. "I'll show you why you don't mess with strangers." He leaned over his prey. "You have to swallow it, or I'm gonna do it again." He spit into the other boy's mouth. Shinso gagged and tried to spit it out on the ground, but was forced to swallow when two fingers pushed at his throat.

"Kacchan, leave him alone!" He heard Deku shout, and he started to crawl over.

"Get away from me!" He replied, and sent a wave of flames towards Deku to push him back. He turned his attention back to Shinso.

"Stop…" Shinso whispered when Kacchan spit again. Shinso jerked his face away with enough power for the tendril of saliva to miss the corner of his mouth. His face was flushed, and he knew he wasn't strong enough to win in a fight. Frustrated tears pricked the corners of his eyes, threatening to trickle down his face.

"Shut up!" Kacchan yelled. His entire body was shaking.

"Stop…" He said through his clenched teeth. He breathed faster and faster, his thoughts spinning in a whirlwind around his head. He couldn't think of anything to get out of the situation other than sit and wait until the other boy was satisfied that he terrorized him enough. He wanted to throw up at the thought of being held down for so long.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Kacchan screamed again. He pushed the boy's wrists into the ground. The hands on Shinso's wrist began to burn, and he screamed out in pain, knowing it would leave an angry burn across his skin.

He squeezed his eyes shut, not able to make sense of anything going on in his head. Suddenly, everything stilled, and he was able to see something through the fog in his mind. A switch. Without knowing why, he started to move towards it, as if in a hazy trance. He reached for it, and touched the switch, activating it. He knew that it did something, but he didn't know what. He flinched when the grip on his wrists slackened. He cracked one eye open, then the other, and stared up at Kacchan, who was stock-still with a blank look on his face. Shinso gasped, and stared at the boy who didn't move at all, save for the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

"...Did you do that?" Shinso heard a voice behind him, and he craned his head. Deku sat on the ground behind him, nursing his badly scraped knee and burn marks across his arms. His eyes were wide with awe.

"I-I don't know." He looked at Kacchan again. "Hello?" He asked, waving his hand in front of his eyes. He tapped him on the hand, but there was no response. "He's not moving." He nudged him harder. yet after that, too, was unsuccessful, he decided to push him onto his back. He wriggled his hands out from under Kacchan's, and placed them on the boy's chest. He heaved, and Kacchan toppled to the ground, hard. And, just as soon as it happened, the spell was broken, and he was sprawled out on the ground, dazed and adjusting his eyes to the sunlight.

After a few moments, he rolled onto his feet and walked immediately up to Shinso, only stopping when their noses were a few inches apart. He glared and snarled at him before stalking off, not bothering to look at Deku. His hands sparked.

Deku stared after Kacchan for a moment before he turned to look back at Shinso. He stood and bowed. "Thank you very much." He stood upright, and grinned. "This is normal for me, but he is never that bad with strangers. And you have an _amazing_ quirk, by the way." He muttered to himself quietly.

"I… you're welcome…" Shinso stammered, slowly processing what Deku had said. _Amazing quirk? That… that was my quirk?_ He thought to himself. Before he could say anything else, the boy bounded off in a different direction. Shinso looked after him with his mouth slightly ajar before he rubbed the back of his neck, and went home, his head swimming. How was he going to tell his mom?

He walked through his front door. "I'm home!" He shouted, and took off his shoes.

"Welcome back!" His mother replied. He walked to the living room. She was looking over the daily newspaper that she had not had the chance to read yet. "How was your walk?" She asked, glancing up at him, but stopped short once she saw how filthy he son's clothes were. "Hitoshi, you're a mess! Go and take a bath right this instance!" She scolded him. He shuffled away, thankful that she didn't notice the streaks of spit trailing down one cheek, and the burn on his wrist that he hid behind his back. He ran the bath and sighed when he sank into the water. His thoughts flew as he tried to think of new ideas for how to tell his mother, but decided to tell the truth.

"Mom?" Shinso asked while toweling off his hair.

"Yes?" She had moved to the kitchen and was now cooking dicing onions.

"I… today I went to the park and…" he paused, not prepared at all to tell his mother. He had thought of showing her by controlling her, but there was no clear switch this time, so he tripped over his words instead. He took a deep breath. "I know what my quirk is."

His mother paused, and looked at him blankly, her mouth an "o". She set down the knife and knelt down by him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "What do you think it is?"

"There was a kid who yelled at me today, and when he was about to do something to me, I made him stop."

Something settled into his mother's eyes, though she tried her best to hide it. "What do you mean made him stop?" She asked slowly.

"I didn't touch him, but he stopped when I told him to, and didn't move until I pushed him over." He looked at his mom carefully. The corners of her mouth had perked up a bit into a smile, a triumphant look passing over her features. But her eyes didn't say that she was proud at all. Her gaze flitted around her son's face, looking to make sure if he was really telling the truth.

She was quiet for a bit longer. "Well," she spoke up, "you go and finish drying yourself off, and we can tell dad later, okay?" She ruffled his hair, and he giggled before skipping off to his room, relieved that she didn't get angry at him. After he turned the corner her mouth turned into a hard line. Her husband's quirk was a weaker form of telekinesis, yet still something powerful that she hoped her son would inherit. However, she was able to persuade the mindsets of others for short period of time when she made physical contact with them, but only for very small decisions. She was never able to make someone stop moving, only make them decide that they want to watch a movie that afternoon instead of play a boardgame. A cold sweat washed over her, and she looked in the direction of her son's room. A dangerous quirk for a boy who was too perceptive and intelligent for his own good. If by chance his pure thoughts turned dark, he would be a deadly enemy for any hero on the planet.

 **I'm just trying this out - I was interested in Shinso's character from the first time he showed up, and really wanted to see more of him in the anime and manga. I'm planning on focusing on his childhood for a few chapters until the tournament arc, then things will change after that. I think this will be a long one and I am excited to write it! Just a note though - the romance between Shinso and Deku will come later on in the fiction, mainly because I think it would be OOC for him to fall in love at first sight, especially when he is so cold to people at times, but we'll see!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own My Hero Academia.**

 **Chapter 2**

"So I told my mom I was in charge, doused her with water, and jumped out the window with her wallet." Kakeru Yamada smirked as he said this. He was a famous delinquent at Nabooh Middle School, and seemed to have a crazier story every day. A group of boys laughed, as did Shinso, though he didn't find it remotely funny.

"Shinso, I bet you've done something like that. Your Quirk is brainwashing, right?" Yamada asked. Shinso flinched, but made sure he was still smiling. "You could steal whatever you wanted."

Shinso rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous smile taking over his features. "Nah… I don't really get into that stuff…" he trailed off when Yamada gave him a blank look. "Alright, alright," he continued quickly, almost tripping over his words, "I can't completely admit to it, but…" he gave them a meaningful look and smiled. "You know what I mean."

"Ooo, Shinso - I didn't know you had a bad side! For such a smart guy, you had me fooled." His friend Kaito Amano said. He bumped his arm.

 _Why am I lying?_ Was all Shinso could think. He bristled as Yamada's arm slung around his shoulder. "Do you think you could get us a few things?" He waited for an answer, occupying himself by splashing water from the tips of his fingers. His Quirk, while it did not seem powerful at first glance, was strong enough to be deadly given the right circumstances. At times he could create enough water from the air to bring a fire Quirk in battle near death. And he had.

Shinso paused, long enough for Yamada to turn and stare at him. Shinso gulped, and was prepared to say no, when Yamada put him in a headlock and ruffled his hair. "I'm just kidding! You take things _way_ to seriously."

"Class will start soon." Was all Shinso said.

Yamada laughed as he stood up, and walked back to his desk. He plunked down in his chair and turned to the girl sitting next to him.

While sitting in class, Shinso looked out the window at the falling cherry blossom petals. He absentmindedly took notes, but his train of thought was elsewhere. During lunch a classmate approached him. "Woah! You're Quirk is brainwashing? That's so cool!" He said. Shinso stared blankly at him.

"Seriously!" Someone else exclaimed. "I can't think of anyone who's had that power!"

"I'm so jealous, Shinso." A girl walked up to him.

"Imagine all the cool stuff you could do controlling people." The first boy said.

"Yeah, you could do any bad thing you want." The second boy cut in.

"And no one would ever know it was you." She smiled, but her eyes were skeptical." Just promise you won't make us your slaves, okay?"

"Heh… everyone always says that." Shinso mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck. _Who wouldn't think I'd end up a villain_ , he thought. He glanced over his shoulder at Yamada and Amano, sure that they had spread the news of his Quirk to the class in the short time since they had talked. He looked at the rest of the class, and froze. There was a distance he hadn't felt before. They were all swept up in their own conversations, but he could feel their suspicious eyes on his. _They think I am a criminal because of my Quirk._ "But you know what…" He whispered so no one would hear.

 _I'm not._

After school he walked home by himself until he heard Amano call out to him. "Oi, Shinso!" He stopped, and waited for his friend to catch up. "Me, Yamada, and a couple other guys are gonna go to the convenience store. You wanna come with?"

Shinso tightened his grip on his backpack. _Just say no if you don't want to go with them._ I "Ah… yeah, I guess I can come." He grit his teeth in disappointment.

Amano chatted away about different girls in the class while they waited for Yamada and his friends. "By the way, I've heard this from a few people, but I think Yui Kobe might like you."

This last statement made Shinso jerk to a near stop. Kobe was a reasonably cute girl, but he simply didn't see her appeal when other guys praised her. That's how it went everytime a friend of his brought up their crush on a girl. But he didn't understand why, so he didn't think much of it. "Is that so…" was all he said.

"You guys ready?" Yamada called. He was followed by Hibiki Kaneko and Kyosuke Nakahara from their class.

"Yup!" Amano called back. "Yo, Yamada! Shinso doesn't like Ko-chan back! He's gonna be fucked when she confesses."

"Kobe? Not bad, Shinso." He drawled, and started walking to the convenience store. But Shinso could only think _confess? How do I respond to that?_ He dreaded the answer.

The twenty minutes walk to the store was filled with dirty jokes and Yamada's monologues. But once they reached their destination, the conversation changed dramatically.

"Man, I don't have any cash on me." Yamada said, too loudly to be for only himself to hear.

Kaneko snorted. "Not like it's stopped you before."

"Hehe, you're right. I'll be right back." He said, and waltzed through the entrance.

A few minutes later, he emerged with five packs of dried squid tucked under various places of his clothes. He revealed them, and tossed one to each boy. Shinso caught his, but before he opened the package, a cold feeling swept through him. "You paid for this, right?"

Yamada laughed at him as though he were stupid. "You're kidding, right? Why are you even asking when you know the answer?"

He was right. Shinso knew. That was why he was having trouble opening his package. His fingers trembled. He had never stolen anything before. _But you didn't steal it - Yamada did. You're just eating something he gave you_ , he said to himself, and tore the top open. He pushed down the guilty feeling in his chest.

"Taste good, Shinso?" Yamada called. He studied the other boy with scrutiny.

Shinso nodded, and smirked after a moment. "You bet."

This continued for a few weeks at local convenience stores before the word got out that there had been a string of thefts, and more heros began to roam the neighborhood. This hardly stopped Yamada from stealing, though. The five boys sat on the steps of a café quietly on a quiet Thursday, before Yamada spoke up.

"Shinso, how much can you control your Quirk?"

"...just fine." He lied. He had little control over his brainwashing, as he hadn't had the heart to practice on unsuspecting passersby, so he neglected it, much to his dad's disappointment. He was frequently angered by Shinso recently.

"How 'bout you do something for me? To pay me back for the dried squid."

Dread crept up over Shinso. "What did you have in mind?" He asked slowly.

Yamada's eyes scanned over the street. He stopped suddenly, and narrowed his eyes. "Do you see you see that girl with short brown hair and round eyes? Bring her over here for me, and make her stop moving."

Shinso's heart picked up. "Why not just let her go where she needs to go? She didn't bother us or anything."

Yamada barked out a laugh. "Seriously? You're wimping out after eating stolen food for three weeks." The half smile dropped from his face, and his eyes bore into Shinso's. "Do it."

Shinso glanced at the other boys. Nakahara and Kaneko seemed unfazed, but Amano swallowed roughly. Shinso stood, and slowly stepped towards the girls. She had a natural smile on her face, warming her wide brown eyes. He took a deep breath, and walked up to her. "Excuse me, miss." He sniffled. "I was walking my dog, and he got off his leash and ran that way." He pointed down a narrow street where Yamada and the others were pressed up against the wall in hiding. He looked down. "Can you please help me?" When he looked back up, tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes. The girl smiled, and her rosy cheeks seemed to glow. "Sure! I would be happy to." She eagerly followed after him, not put off at all when the people in the street disappeared.

Shinso swallowed, already feeling the guilt threaten to swell up, but he shook his head and prepared to use his Quirk. "I'm Riku Saito. What's yours?" While he hadn't hardly practiced his Quirk, those rare times that he did, it only worked when they spoke to him. Never at eye contact or touch, and never if they refused to speak.

"Oh! I'm Ochako Uraraka! Nice to meet you!" She bowed politely, and continued to walk in search of his "dog". "I forgot to ask - what does your dog look like?"

Shinso immediately started looking for a switch to flip. And he panicked when he saw no such thing. _Where is it?_ He screamed at himself.

"Hello?"

Shinso jerked his head to look at her. He had waited too long to reply. "Oh, he is a sandy color with a lot of hair. His name is Max." _Max?_

She grinned. "Okay. By the way, you said he got off of his leash? Where did you leave the leash?"

Shinso was covered in a cold sweat, and he frantically tore through his mind to catch even a glimpse of a switch.

She wasn't smiling anymore. He didn't answer. "I just remembered that my parents wanted me home early tonight…" she forced out, and started backing away. Shinso snapped out of his daze.

"Wait! I still need help!" He tried to grab her. Maybe touching her would help him find the switch.

She jumped back, frightened. "I know - I am so sorry, but I have to go!" She turned on her heel, and fled.

"No!" Shinso yelled, and he squeezed his eyes. Shut. _Where is the switch? Where is it?!_ Then, he slowed down his breathing, and stood, unmoving, in the street. The fog cleared, and he saw the switch. He eagerly grasped at it, and it flipped on. _Stop moving_ , her ordered, and opened his eyes. Uraraka was stuck in mid-stride, her arms flung out from her side.

Suddenly Yamada appeared with Amano, and the two boys. They circles around Uraraka and marveled at Shinso's Quirk. "I gotta hand it to you, Shinso." Yamada murmured. "You're Quirk is something people would kill for." He proceeded to pat Uraraka's pockets gently, and stopped, pulling out a pink wallet. Shinso started towards him.

"Hey, what are you-"

"Shut up, Shinso. You knew what you were getting into." He threw his arm out, and sent a wave of water crashing down the street and into Shinso. He flew back on impact, and fell to the street. Yamada continued to loot Uraraka of any and all valuables. Shinso was held down by a large mass of water, and he couldn't move. He looked at the sky and tried to convince himself that he was not at fault for he couldn't. "Yamada, _stop_." He ordered. He tried to trick him into saying something, _anything_ , as a reply, but Yamada was smarter than that. He beamed at him, but kept his mouth shut.

When Shinso tried again to get up, Yamada waterlogged him, and forced a current down his throat. He gagged, and tried to cough that fluid out of his lungs, but it would not recede.

When Yamada was satisfied with what he had found, he released his hold on Shinso, who rolled onto his hands and knees and heaved up the water that was suffocating him. Tears streamed down his face, and whatever came out of his mouth burned far more on the way up than it did on the way down.

His body felt too off balance to be normal, but he did not right himself fast enough before he fell to his side, and a rush of black surged towards him. "Oh, for the love of…" He heard Yamada say just before he lost consciousness.

He wasn't unconscious for long before he felt Amano shove his shoulder and shake him repeatedly. "Shinso, get the fuck up! The chick knows what happened - she woke up right after you blacked out."

Shinso sat up slowly, and looked towards Uraraka. She was checking her pockets, frantically looking for her money and phone. "No, no, no, no, no…" she choked out. She sank to her knees and wailed. Amano yanked him to his feet, and just before they disappeared down an alley, Shinso heard her softly sob and say "I'm sorry, daddy."

Shinso's mother knew that something had happened the moment her son showed up soaking wet and dead to the world on her doorstep. She looked behind her shoulder to cheek that her husband was still in the other room, then hooked her hands under his arms and dragged him through the door and to the bathroom. Right after she locked the door, she pressed a hand to his forehead to check for fever. She was burning up.

"Shinso. Shinso!" She hissed. He stirred briefly before his head lolled to the side.

His mother pursed her lips with worry, and went to his rom to fetch a pair of clothes. But her son never stirred.

Shinso woke in his bed with a damp cloth placed on his forehead. He groaned, and heard a crinkle of paper to his right.

"Shinso." He heard his mother rumble. "I know what you did." She held up the newspaper and began to read. "'After claiming to have lost his dog, the assailant led the victim to an unpopulated area. From that moment, the victim slipped into a coma-like state, whereupon another assailant is presumed to have sripped her of valuables. When the victim regained awareness, the thieves had fled.'" She halted, and glared at him.

"But that…" _happened today_ , he thought.

"You've been out since yesterday afternoon, Shinso," She answered his unspoken question. She gently folded the paper and set it down beside her. "Frankly, I am appalled at your actions. You have a Quirk meant for a villain, yes, _but I knew you were better than that._ I didn't tell your father, and I don't think I should, because I am afraid for you if he finds out about this," she motioned to the crumpled news on his bed, "but you need to be punished somehow for your wrongdoings."

Shinso shook off the last of his fatigue, and growled, "It wasn't my fault, mom. I didn't take anything of hers." He desperately sought to place the blame with someone else.

"Oh, don't give me that _bullshit_." She rolled her eyes, and a scornful expression twisted her features. "A bystander is just as bad as the bully. And you wouldn't even qualify as a bystander in this case, because you instigated this whole thing."

"I didn't do anything!"He shouted. "Get the fuck out of my room and stop saying it's my fault!"

He heaved, and watched as his mother's face shuttered into an expressionless frown. She picked up the paper, and slowly stalked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Shinso didn't go to school for a few days, and claimed to his father that he ran a high fever. _I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it,_ is what he told himself over and over. He didn't dare go outside in fear of running into Yamada, or worse, Uraraka. He felt so tired and pathetic. _How could I ever become a hero now?_ He thought constantly. He could feel his unspoked dream slipping through his fingers faster than he ever would have thought.

His mother hadn't visited his room since their argument, but he could feel that she was waiting for him to apologize. He wasn't ready yet. Not only was he a piece of shit person, he was a piece of shit son. And that is what he was having the most trouble accepting. After all she had done to protect him from the brunt of his father's wrath, he couldn't even repay her by admitting that he was at fault for what happened to that girl.

As his hope slipped away, he was watching a popular news channel when something caught his attention. An announcer was standing behind yellow tape, but eagerly pointed behind her towards a hero Shinso had never seen before. "A rare story brought to you by channel 6 news. Eraserhead, the often elusive hero, had made an unlikely appearance alongside All Might. The two were seen battling a villain that is never before seen…" as she continued in a chirping voie, the camera zoomed in on Eraserhead.

Shinso straightened in his seat when he was what the hero looked like. Matted and unkempt hair, a ratty outfit, tired eyes - he didn't look like a hero in the slightest. An unwilling smile showed up on his face. If someone who didn't look like a hero could be one, what was to stop him, with a less than honorable Quirk?

He switched off the television and ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror, his heart hammering in his chest. He was still smiling. He pushed his unwashed hair out of his face to look at himself. _I can be a hero._ His smile disappeared. Doubt began to settle in his chest. _How could I possibly be one with my Quirk?_ His quirk was meant to be for a villain. Didn't that mean _he_ was destined to become one? He thought of All Might, and his perfect Quirk. It really was a gift.

"Tch." His lips curled up in disgust. _All Might has had everything come easy to him. He hasn't had to prove anyone wrong when they said he should be a villain. He…_ his thoughts wandered as he searched for an explanation for this unfairness. He could be the perfect villain. He should be one.

"But you know what…" he repeated again from when he spoke to his classmates many weeks ago,

"I'm not." his soft whisper echoed against the tile walls of the bathroom before fading into a heavy silence.

 **Here is chapter 2! There is a short part in this chapter when Shinso is talking to the 3 unnamed** **classmates - that is dialogue from the anime, because I wanted to give the context of where he is in his journey of becoming a hero. Also, I love his line of "but you know what... I'm not." I just** ** _needed_** **to keep that in there! He is about 2 chapters away from taking the test, and 2 chapters past** ** _that_** **before the tournament arc begins, but I've been trying to add in Class 1-A members as I go on.**


End file.
